housing is simply a matter of group- ing the maximum number of housing units into the smallest and most economic volume of building.
It is not generally appreciated that the smaller the unit, the greater the architectural skill needed. As many teachers of architecture will confirm, the most difficult of architectural pro- blems to solve really satisfactorily is that of the private house. Although public housing is not custom built to suit each tenant, it is perhaps made more difficult in that it has to suit the average tenant, a much more com- plex person than the individual, whose identity defies definition.
matter
Besides the design of the housing, the design of the general environment is of equal importance, a stressed by many participants at the conference, irrespective of the extent of development of the countries which they represented. This is another rea- son for the employment of the best architects.
The scale of the development and the population densities involved in developing countries makes the crea- tion of a good general environment extremely difficult to attain. In Great Britain, the tradition of the Garden City, still lives on in the New Towns, and environmental considerations very inuch influence the planning of town centres, industrial, commercial, and residential areas as a natural course of events. In developing countries the opposite is the case, and what en- vironmental quality is achieved is often fortuitous.
This is not good enough, and in Hong Kong and many tropical and sub-tropical countries, a good case could be made for providing very low standard housing, such as the earlier Hong Kong Resettlement type, pro- vided there is a high standard of en- vironment. which not only means pleasant surroundings, but also the provision of the ancillary social and cconomic amenities that allow for at least some degree of satisfactory liv- ing.
Vast Problem
What is not acceptable is low stand- ard housing in a "no-standard" en- vironment, which incidentally raises doubts of the improvement affected by some squatter resettlement schemes.
In India, and in Calcutta particu- larly, the re-housing problem of the squatters is SO vast, that existing cconomic resources can go no where near even touching the problem, if considered in terms of providing per- manent housing.
One approach 10 the problem which has much to recommend it is utilizing the available resources only to improving the environment, by pro- viding adequate supply of potable water, if only to standpoints, by pro- viding adequate sanitation if only on a public basis and by providing hard surfaces to the streets or paths serv- ing the areas. The latter having a greater importance than is often rea- lized in countries where the earth can
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quickly be turned into a quagmire in the rainy season and a dust-bowl in the dry.
Turning to history: Are not these the first improvements that all com- munities turned to as their civilization developed? One is apt to consider the need for permanent shelter as first priority. Where the climate itself is not a danger to survival, simple shel- ter is all that is needed, to keep off the direct rays of the sun and to shed water. Many forms of simple con- struction can well perform this; the construction that people have been providing for themselves since time immemorial.
The allotment of a small piece of well drained land, a nearby source of fresh water, and easy access to a sani- tary latrine could immeasurably im- prove the lot of millions of squatters, from Hong Kong to Japan to the countries of South America, to those of Africa, to Pakistan. India and back to South East Asia a great belt of peoples round the world extending north and south of the equator to the temperate latitudes.
Three Methods
There are three broad methods of providing housing: First, what may be called direct, the provision of per- manent hygenic developments by offi- cial agencies; second, the semi-direct, where some degree of official help is provided including self-help and mu- tual aid schemes, and third, the in- direct, the method of pulling-oneself- up-by-ones-shoe-straps.
The latter has not been touched on. but results from the thesis that im- provement in the national economy generates improvement in the social conditions of the people. When the resources of a country are limited, and are often strained and directed to give some measure of improvement of an all round nature, very little effect is induced in the level of existence; often it is lowered. In such circums- tances, and accepting this as a gener- alization, it is better to direct all re- sources to improving the national cconomy. Inevitably it will of neces- sity cause some direct social improve- ment; for instance, economic develop- ment cannot be achieved without pro- viding an adequate educational back- ground but in the long run, the greater prosperity will provide the climate in which social development can flourish and such problems as housing will tend indirectly to solve themselves.
However the time element may be against such a policy, and housing programmes may have to be embark- ed upon, to maintain morale. Even so, a good policy, essentially demo- cratic, is to do the most good for the greatest number.
The degree of permanency of hous- ing must be determined in any policy. It is not axiomatic, as is often held, that all housing, particularly that built from public funds, should be perma- ment in the sense that it should last fifty years or more.
This can only be true, if it is designed in the first place, to be adaptable to changing social circums tances and improvements in living standards. What these are likely to
be is so unpredictable that it may be valueless to consider, in which case it is surely not worth building for such permanency. It may well be argued that one of the greatest impediments to ur- ban redevelopment is the legacy of per- manent outmoded housing on which society cannot afford to fore-close.
The lesson has not been fully learn- ed from the British "prefab." develop- cd immediately after the last war, as a temporary solution to the acute housing shortage. Time did not allow for development and the "prefab" was thought too expensive. To-day it may be considerably cheaper than permanent housing; the future provid- ed by plastics is only just opening out. But the point is that they outlined their usefulness, in fact in some places they are still used.
This is not to deny that a good deal of prefabricated housing is still used about the world, the trouble is that it is regarded as temporary whereas it is by modern standards permanent. More study is needed in its applica- tion to minimum standard housing on a local industry basis.
Weight Reduction
In discussing permanency of build- ing. one is lead to question the
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amount of material that is used mere- ly to make a building stand up. may be naive to compare the stress/ weight ratio of an aircraft with that of a building, but on the face of it. there appears to be something radic ally wrong. J. B. Priestley, in his re- miniscences, comments on the light- ness, compactness and functional im- provement of the modern typewriter compared with the fifty-six keyed in- strument he used in his early days as a clerk; it could not make copies, for which a separate heavy press had to be used.
Has there been such a relative weight reduction in building in the same period of time? Much of mo- dern housing construction is not so far removed from methods used in Georgian building, much of which in- cidentally is still extant in England. As has been said this may be a rather naive comment, but surely from the economic standpoint, methods of house construction is another angle from which the housing problem needs to be attacked.
are
There is hope in system-building. but this is only one method; we must look for a method, for instance, in which complete housing units stamped out by or extruded from a machine in some highly insulated ma- terial, and which can be bolted to- gether to form multiple units. In short, can we say that to-day's build- since the war, is falling behind the 20th Century?
It is also a little naive to repeat in this context what has become a cliche question, why cannot the resources
Far East Architect & Builder July, 1966